Call The Midwife

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just started watching this on Netflix today. Has anyone seen this series. It's not new.

Adapted by Heidi Thomas from the best-selling memoirs of Jennifer Worth, this drama series is a moving, funny, colorful look at midwifery and family in 1950s East End London. It follows newly qualified midwife Jenny, who joins an eccentric, lovable community of nuns who are nurses at Nonnatus House. Jenny is surprised to find herself at a convent -- she thought she was being sent to a small private hospital -- and is initially daunted by her surroundings, most notably the formidable Sister Evangelina and the unconventional Sister Monica Joan. But Jenny gradually begins to find her way and develops incredible friendships among the nurses, as they are drawn into the lives and homes of the women and families they treat.

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I don't think I'll watch this particular series but I have delivered at least twenty babies. Working as a paramedic in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, we had a couple of colonias (illegal housing developments populated largely by illegal immigrants) in our area. Women who were pregnant would be turned away at the hospital if they arrived too early for a childbirth since the hospital staff would determine that it wasn't an emergent condition, so they would often wait until the last minute and call an ambulance. We were more than a half hour away from the nearest hospital, and about forty minutes from the nearest hospital that had a specialized childbirth section, so we would (more often than I liked) deliver the baby at the house or en route to the hospital. We delivered one outside the elevator waiting to take her up to the OBGYN floor, just as the OBGYN staff were doing a shift change, so they all made wisecracks as they went in or out of the elevator, going to or from their shift. I only had one that even threatened to be a problem, when a mother was bleeding and the baby wasn't breathing as willingly as he should have. Both of them came through okay, though. Delivering a baby usually wasn't a difficult thing to do, for me, since the mother did all the work. But when things went wrong, they could go very wrong, and that was a constant fear.

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I think you'll like it Chrissy - I gave it a miss as childbirth is not for me and I presumed there would be
plenty of them
The show is so popular over here, so I was tempted but not enough - would have liked the drama of it though
and the fact it's close to 'home'

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Oh oh...Mrs Lawson just had a black baby and her husband is an old white man.

Mr. Lawson's handling of seeing the baby bought a tear to my eye...touching.

So far I'm loving this show...only negative is maybe too many births shown but that doesn't bother me but I think it might have more people watching it especially men if there was less but I'm only on my 3rd episode out of 56 so don't know how it continues.

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Mr Lawson just bought the baby to the clinic because of a cough, and it's shown as an older white man tenderly and with so much love holding the tiny black hand in his. I haven't seen any shunning or shock yet but it's still early in the show.

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Yes I watch this show! I probably have not seen all episodes since I catch it hit and miss on PBS. I have no interest in babies, childbirth or children yet I still like the human interest of this show. They do a good job without being preachy. Characters will evolve and some will leave.

There have been a few cliché's such as when an older nurse shows up set in her ways. No one likes her and she comes on too strong but in a few episodes they decide she's cool and she fits in with the younger nurses.

I like Chummy too. If her arrogant pain of a mother hasn't shown up yet. Wait for her. She's a real ass.

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In your clip Chrissy, I found the Cockney accent to be false - put on
There are not many 'genuine' Cockneys left now, but actors should be able to master it
As it was just a clip, I would hope there are some good Cockney accents going on in there

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In your clip Chrissy, I found the Cockney accent to be false - put on
There are not many 'genuine' Cockneys left now, but actors should be able to master it
As it was just a clip, I would hope there are some good Cockney accents going on in there

Click to expand...

I pretty much understand what's being said and I know there are some English accents I find harder.

Also in that clip, only the father and the daughter would be speaking with a cockney accent I think...the midwives and the nuns aren't from there.

The daughter was too easy to understand so you're probably right on that. I should turn off closed captioning and see how well I understand it.

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Yes I watch this show! I probably have not seen all episodes since I catch it hit and miss on PBS. I have no interest in babies, childbirth or children yet I still like the human interest of this show. They do a good job without being preachy. Characters will evolve and some will leave.

There have been a few cliché's such as when an older nurse shows up set in her ways. No one likes her and she comes on too strong but in a few episodes they decide she's cool and she fits in with the younger nurses.

I like Chummy too. If her arrogant pain of a mother hasn't shown up yet. Wait for her. She's a real ass.

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